I have to admit that I am strangely but certainly drawn towards the Gap ads: what I think of as the “singing drones” trilogy (dress you up, mellow yellow, i just can’t get enough), and the new holiday ones with the cool (literally) special effects. This got me thinking, again, about ownership and transfer of digital files (see 11/21 below), because I was lamenting (only a teeny bit) that the Gap won’t run these ads forever. But, I can watch them online. Now, what if the Gap let you download those ads for a limited time only? And what if some people had the files and other people didn’t, but wanted them? Could a market be created like we have for physical objects like trading cards and (gag) Beanie Babies? Of course, digital files can be easily copied, so there isn’t guaranteed scarcity. How do you have a “first edition” Gap ad or a “limited edition” pokemon jpeg? There could be fancy digital signature technology; that’s what Transactor developed (apparently they’ve since repositioned themselves into something different) and placed underneath 10Six, a networked game where you could sell weapons and equipment. A central server or some other nifty method is needed to validate limited digital items. How else to get uniqueness? It’d have to be on a storage device that doesn’t allow copying … ACK NO, not like DIVX!! Someone needs to market this limited digital file concept along with workable technology and a cool brand and it’ll catch on like wildfire. I’m not saying it’s a good idea. But it’s one whose time has come.